Hito Tres Fronteras (Triple Frontier)

Riverside viewpoint where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet

Address Puerto Iguazú, Misiones

The Hito Tres Fronteras is the small riverside park at the western end of Puerto Iguazú where the Iguazú River flows into the Paraná and the territories of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet. Each country has built an obelisk on its own bank — painted in the national colours — and from the Argentinian one you can see the other two across the muddy confluence.

The viewpoint has been spruced up with a small craft market, a folkloric show in the evenings, and a clutch of vendors selling chipá (Paraguayan cheese bread). Come at sunset, when the orange light catches the spray rising from the falls fifteen kilometres upstream.

things to do sight
A story
All three countries built matching obelisks on their banks, painted in the colours of each respective flag. On the night before the Argentinian one was inaugurated in 1942, the Brazilians began work on a slightly taller version across the river — a low-grade act of bordertown one-upmanship that the diplomats had to pretend not to notice.

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